Scarred Souls
by Jenna Wilder
Summary: A story from Alexander's POV. Angsty puppydog ramblings. Yes, I know it sounds strange, but come read it before you judge me. Inspired by Night of the Chimera's Cry.


This was inspired after watching "Night of the Chimera's Cry" – I believe it's episode 7 – in the FMA series. It's another thousand-word story, for those of you who haven't read my other updates. Written from an unlikely subject's POV.

Word count: 1169-ish

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. Yet.

---

Nina is excited today, hrr. She jumps on the furniture and I join her because she is Nina. She is my friend. But I am not allowed to jump on the furniture. So I must go lie in the corner.

Nina comes to sit with me. She and I understand each other. She tells me that some humans will come to stay with us, and I am happy. Nina needs humans to play with, grr, and she has none. She has only me. I will play with her until the humans come. I chase her in circles and she laughs.

The bell rings. I bark loudly to tell the big human that here is someone at the door. Nina runs and opens it. I cannot wait, but jump out to greet the humans that are here to play with Nina.

I land on one.

Nina is happy, as happy as she was before the female human, her mother, left suddenly. She asks the humans to play with her. One of them is very short and smells of books, the other is very tall and hard. I like the short one best, for he is funny, hrr. Nina likes them both.

They go in and eat food that smells delicious. I am not invited, so I sit under the table and wait for Nina to sneak food to me. It is good, grr. I wish for more, but she is busy telling the tall human to eat.

As she goes to bed, she tells the humans that she is glad they are here. I am glad also.

Time passes. I do not know how much, hrr – human time is very different. We play with the tall, hard human, when he is not reading. The short one will not play. He is busy.

Soon, it is cold and Nina laughs because blankets fall from the sky. They are cold blankets. I do not care, for Nina is laughing. If she is happy, I am happy too, rrrr.

The short human comes to play. The blankets falling from the sky surprise him too. He makes flowers for Nina from the blankets and she puts then on her head.

More time passes, grr. Soon, the blankets are gone, and flowers grow again. The humans smell nervous. Nina says they are taking a test. She draws a picture for the short one – he has passed his test and is moving to the next test. I hope he passes, for then he will not be busy and will play with Nina and I.

He comes back with a shiny disc, waving it with a big smile. Almost as if he wants me to play with him. I take the disc, and he chases me.

Nina's father, the big human, has a test as well. He does not know how to pass it. She tells me he is very wise, and that he knows what he is doing. I am not sure. He smells afraid, grr.

She laughs at the small human when he writes a letter to a female, then draws her own picture to send to her mother. It is of our family – the big human, Nina's mother, Nina, and I, rrrr. We are happy in the picture. The big human takes Nina to her bed and then makes the paper very bright. I do not know why.

Soon, a large human, bigger even than the hard one who is staying with us, comes and takes the human brothers away, grrr. Nina is sad. She tells them to come play with us again.

The big human is even more afraid now. He sits at the table and stares at nothing. Nina and I come to ask him why.

Nina asks him if he is hurting somewhere. He looks at her, the circles on his face getting shiny, and picks her up. I follow. Where Nina goes, I go, hrr.

He takes her to his secret-place. It smells bad here, like death and sadness. Many beasts are kept in cages. I do not like cages, grr. But I follow, because the big human is taking Nina away.

He puts her down and I run to her, licking her face. She does not laugh.

The big human draws a circle around us. "Sit, Alexander," he tells me, and so I sit. Nina hugs my neck, rrrr, and looks at her father's circles and human-squiggles on the floor. They are strange to me, and to Nina as well.

He puts a hand on the circle and looks at Nina with a scary look. I stand, growling, wanting to protect my girl-human. But the man makes the circle glow, and I begin to hurt inside. Nina disappears. I can hear her crying, but I cannot see her.

Then, I feel her. She is _inside_ me. The fur on my back becomes the color of hers. My body changes shape slightly. I do not like it, grr. Nina is crying.

The big human looks at me – at _us_, for Nina is inside my body now – and tells us to speak. He is happy. Nina tries to talk. "Daddy," she says.

We hear loud noises outside the door. Nina asks me what they are, and I tell her it sounds like the tall, hard human. Bigger brother, she calls him. He has come back to play with us. But we do not want to play. We hurt, hrr.

The brother-humans come in. The short one is sad. He kneels beside us, and I see the disc attached to his belt and bite it. Nina asks why he is hurting.

He stands up and begins to shout at the big human, his voice angry.

The big human laughs and says something in reply. Rrrr.

And the short one hits him, again and again, screaming. We bite his jacket, grr. Nina does not want him to hurt her father. He stops and looks at us, then brings his hands close together. The hard brother tells him not to, and so he does not.

The large human returns with smaller humans behind him. They take us away from the brothers, inside a car. I like cars, but not this one. The short brother makes the car fall over, and the door opens again. We run away from the large human.

Nina and I share thoughts. We do not like the large human, and so we run away from him. The place we choose to hide is a dead end. Only a single man sits on a box.

We like this man. We hurt, and he is kind to us. He talks in a gentle tone, hrr. It makes Nina feel safe.

He puts a hand on our head. Nina knows what he says but does not understand it.

_Oh merciful God who shapes us all…_

I think of the brothers. Of the humans I have met. Of Nina. I want her to be happy.

_…Please return these scarred souls to your unending womb._

---

So what do you think? Constructive criticism, and corrections to grammatical/spelling errors (who knows what Microsoft Word did to my story) are gladly accepted. Flames will be used to burn my Advanced Algebra textbook.


End file.
